Boris Barnet

Boris Vasilyevich Barnet (Russian: Бори́с Васи́льевич Ба́рнет; 18 June 1902 – 8 January 1965) was a Soviet film director, actor and screenwriter of Jewish origin. He directed 27 films between 1927 and 1963.

Early years

Barnet was born in Moscow. A student of the Moscow Art School, he joined the Red Army at age 16 and was then professionally involved in boxing. In 1927 he shot his first feature, a comedy film, The Girl with the Hatbox, starring Anna Sten. His 1928 melodramatic film The House on Trubnaya, starring Vera Maretskaya, was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and now ranks as one of Russian silent film classics.

Encouraged in his early efforts by Yakov Protazanov, Barnet emerged in the 1930s as one of the country's leading film-makers, working with the likes of Serafima Birman and Nikolai Erdman. Amongst Barnet's masterpieces, we find Okraina (1933), a pacifist story acclaimed at the first Venice Film Festival and spoofed by Pavel Lutsik in his award-winning 1998 remake.

Later years and work

Barnet's postwar work is exemplified by Secret Agent, the first Soviet spy film. The Stalin Prize-winning film was also years ahead of its time in exhibiting Hitchcockian influence and tricks and helped cement Barnet's reputation abroad.

It was Barnet's gift of artistic invention that made him stand out from the crowd of Soviet colleagues. In a Barnet film, a photograph in the newspaper would unexpectedly come alive, and scenes would often end with a detail introducing the next scene. He would begin a scene with a close up, "so that the space is progressively discovered by changing the axis or by camera movement". Among Russian filmmakers professing their admiration for Barnet was Andrei Tarkovsky.

After some years of artistic silence Boris Barnet committed suicide in Riga, Latvian SSR. His body was found hanging from a fishing line. He was survived by wife Alla Kazanskaya and daughter Olga Barnet.

Filmography

• Miss Mend (Мисс Менд) (1926)
• The Girl with the Hat Box (Девушка с коробкой)(1927)
• Moscow in October (Москва в Октябре) (1927)
• The House on Trubnaya (Дом на Трубной) (1928)
• Living Things (Живые дела) (1930)
• The Ghost (Привидения) (1931)
• The Thaw (Ледолом) (1931)
• Okraina (Окраина) (1933)
• By the Bluest of Seas (У самого синего моря) (1936)
• A Night in September (Ночь в сентябре) (1939)
• The Old Horseman (Старый наездник) (1940) output to the screen in 1959
• A Good Lad (Славный малый) (1943)
• Dark is the Night (Однажды ночью) (1945)
• Secret Agent (Подвиг разведчика) (1947)
• Pages of Life (Страницы жизни) (1948)
• Bountiful Summer (Щедрое лето) (1950)
• Lyana (Ляна) (1955)
• The Poet (Поэт) (1956)
• The Wrestler and the Clown (Борец и клоун) (1957)
• Annushka (Аннушка) (1959)
• Alyonka (Алёнка) (1961)
• Whistle Stop (Полустанок) (1963)

• The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)
• Miss Mend (1926)
• Storm Over Asia (1928)
• Secret Agent (Подвиг разведчика) (1947)